Growing the Grown-Ups: Models for Improving Teacher Effectiveness and Sustainability

1. Growing the Grown-Ups: Models for Improving Teacher Effectiveness and Sustainability

2. Introductions Karen Drezner Founder/CEO, Leveraging Leaders Jessica Nauiokas Principal, Mott Haven Academy Charter School

3. Introductions Who are you? Why did you choose to attend this session?

4. Essential Questions How do we know our teachers are effective? How can we develop and support our teachers to sustain them over time?

5. Great Teaching: A Quick Quiz What is the best indicator of an effective teacher? • Classroom observations • Student surveys • Graduate degree • Years of teaching experience • Assessment of pedagogical knowledge • Student achievement gains (“value-added” = growth measured over time)

6. The MET ProjectTwo Key Findings • If a school wants to predict a teacher’s future success in helping students learn, multiple measures will yield the most accurate results—more accurate than any one measure on its own. • Value-added analysis, which typically uses test results to gauge how much an individual teacher contributes to his or her students’ learning growth, is more accurate than any other single measure in predicting success over the course of a teacher’s career—more than classroom observations or student surveys.

7. High Value-Added Scores Key Confirmations: • High value-added scores are not associated with a “drill-and-kill” approach to instruction. Teachers are not generally earning high value-added scores by teaching to the test. • Teachers with high value-added scores helped their students master higher-level thinking skills in addition to helping them score well on traditional standardized tests. Teachers with high value-added scores had students who: • Showed larger performance gains on tests of conceptual understanding in mathematics and a literacy test requiring short-answer responses. • Reported higher levels of effort and greater enjoyment in class. Key Recommendations: • Use standard assessments that measure growth in learning reliably over time • Analyze your own school data to validate the alignment between growth in standard test scores with other performance measures.

8. Student SurveysThe Seven C’s of the Tripod Project

9. Student Surveys: The Tripod Project

10. Classroom Observations Key Confirmations: • Observation ratings alone were not very predictive of a teacher’s future success at helping students learn. • Observations do help evaluators identify teachers’ specific strengths and weaknesses in the classroom—which enables them to give honest feedback that can help teachers improve. Key Recommendations: • Improve classroom observations by making them more frequent and robust. • Use or modify an existing observation rubric instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. • Give evaluators the training and ongoing support they need to be successful.

11. The New Teacher Project’s Six Design Standards Annual Process Clear, Rigorous Expectations Multiple Measures Multiple Ratings Regular Feedback Significance

12. Haven Academy

13. Leveraging Leaders: One Client School

14. Identifying your “Irreplaceables” • Top 20 %: • Demonstrate 5-6 months more of student learning than poor performers. • Hold beliefs and attitudes that reflect high expectations for students and their own effectiveness as teachers. • Have students who are much more likely to say that their teacher cares, does not let them give up when things get difficult and makes learning enjoyable.

15. Retention: Aim to Improve, Not Increase • Schools retain their best and worst performers at “strikingly similar rates.” • Replacing high performers: • Average school: Only 1 in 6 replacement candidates will be of comparable quality • Low performing school: Only 1 in 11 replacement candidates will be of comparable quality • Replacing low performers: • Have 3 in 4 chance of replacing a poor performer with a more effective teacher right away! • Poor performers rarely self-select out, struggling teachers rarely improve • Three years later, average experienced poor performer remains less effective than average first year teacher

16. Low Cost/High Impact Strategies - Irreplaceableswho experienced at least two strategies stayed almost twice as long as they would have without them. - 25 % of Irreplaceables reported not experiencing any strategies. - 2 out of 3 low performing teachers believe they are above average or even exceptional at their jobs. - They are just as likely to be offered teacher leadership roles. - Two-thirds reported that principal hadn’t even encouraged them to stay - 28 % teach somewhere else - 31 % take another K-12 role

17. School CultureTurnover of Irreplaceables was 50 % higher in schools with weak instructional cultures • Leaders clearly articulate high expectations, ensure teachers feel supported, less likely to tolerate ineffective teaching • Strong instructional culture • Atmosphere of mutual respect and trust • Action taken with poor performing teachers (low tolerance for poor performance) • Great teaching is top priority • Working conditions • Parental involvement, student conduct, school safety • District leaders (or for us: authorizers, trustees, network leaders, consultants…) can provide feedback and offer support: • Teacher and student surveys • Information about gaps

18. Contact Us Jessica Nauiokas Principal, Haven Academy jnauiokas@havenacademy.org www.havenacademy.org Karen Drezner Founder/CEO, Leveraging Leaders karendrezner@leveragingleaders.com www.leveragingleaders.com Helpful Links